6 accepted papers
Achieving human-like dexterity is a longstanding challenge in robotics, in part due to the complexity of planning and control for contact-rich systems. In reinforcement learning (RL), one popular approach has been to use massively-parallelized, domain-randomized simulations to learn a policy offline
Humanoid robots have great potential for real-world applications due to their ability to operate in environments built for humans, but their deployment is hindered by the challenge of controlling their underlying high-dimensional nonlinear hybrid dynamics. While reduced-order models like the Hybrid
Contact-implicit trajectory optimization offers an appealing method of automatically generating complex and contact-rich behaviors for robot manipulation and locomotion. The scalability of such techniques has been limited, however, by the challenge of ensuring both numerical reliability and physical…
Seemingly in defiance of basic physics, cats consistently land on their feet after falling. In this paper, we design a controller that lands the Mini Cheetah quadruped robot on its feet as well. Specifically, we explore how trajectory optimization and machine learning can work together to enable hig…
Reduced-order template models are widely used to control high degree-of-freedom legged robots, but existing methods for template-based whole-body control rely heavily on heuristics and often suffer from robustness issues. In this letter, we propose a template-based whole-body control method grounded
The ability of autonomous mobile robots to react to and recover from potential failures of on-board systems is an important area of ongoing robotics research. With increasing emphasis on robust systems and long-term autonomy, mobile robots must be able to respond safely and intelligently to dangerou…